Do It Yourself Cruise Missile Project Shut Down

from the government-finally-noticed,-huh? dept

In the past year, we've had two stories about the "handyman" in New Zealand who is building his own cruise missile with $5,000 worth of parts he bought on eBay. Every article about the guy has asked about the government's response to such actions. In the first article (in June) there was a quote that it was being "looked into". In the second article (in August), the guy said that, so far, the government had pretty much ignored him. Not any more. All this publicity had to come down sooner or later and the New Zealand government has forced him to shut down the project. He claims that the government had originally said that what he was doing was legal, but it has since come under pressure from US officials who are not happy. He also says that the effort has been to bankrupt him due to tax debt he owes - though, not much in the way of details are given. As for the missile? It's been given to a friend for safekeeping - even though the guy says that a request came in from Iran to buy the plans on how to build such a missile. Back in August, he had said as soon as he finished he would build another one - but that was just to prove the point, and he says his missile building days are over. His point was to get the attention of the government, and it appears to have worked.